Apparatus for printing on textile fabrics



W. E. IMAGE APPARATUS FOR PRINTi'NG ON TEXTILE FABRICS Aug. 7, 1951 3 Shegfcs-Sheet 1 Filed y 12. 1949 INVENT Ill?" Zn 965 1 5M nrnmnsy Aug. 7, 1951 w. E. IMAGE APPARATUS FOR PRINTING ON TEXTILE FABRICS 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed May 12, 1949 INVENTOR WILLIAM E. IMAGE ATTORNE) W. E. IMAGE- APPARATUS FOR PRINTING ON TEXTILE FABRICS Aug. 7, 1951 Filed May 12, 1949 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTOR.

WILLIAM E. IMAGE.

UM W ATTORNE/ i atentecl Aug, 7, 1951 N OF F ICE APPARATUS FOR PRINTING N TEXTILE FABRICS William Edward Image, Salford, England Application-May [2, 1949, Serial No. 92,864 In Great Britain May 29, "1948 1 Claim. 1

This invention relates to apparatus for printing on textile fabrics, and more particularly to a machine in which a marking medium traveling at right angles to the direction of travel of the fabric is interposed between said fabric and :a

heateddie, 7

.At present the only known method of satisfactorily applying trade-marks, or other legends or designs, to the selvedges of relatively hairy fabrics, such as worsteds, serges and tweeds, is

by actually weaving them into the material.

The weaving-in of selvedge markings, however, involves running additional warp threads (usually silk) from end to end of the piece, although only a small proportion of each thread actually appears at the race of the cloth as part of the markings.

Furthermore, the loom is complicated by the incorporation or special jacquard mechanism, production is slowed up, and the cost of the material substantially increased.

.As a result, many manufacturers have found it uneconomical to mark their selvedges, in spite of the loss of personal advertisement involved.

The present preoccupation of the trade-mark with overseas markets, which involves some indication of the country of Origin appearing on the goods exported, has particularly emphasized the desirability of being able to mark textile selvedges otherwise than by weaving, but previous attempts to find a solution to this problem have been unsuccessful.

7 One such attempt made by the present application consisted in applying the known technique of blocking to the marking of textile fabrics, .a pigmented .foil being pressed against the cloth by means of a heated die which bore the legend or design to be transferred. I v

The blocking foils used in connection were of the known type in which the pigment, mixed with a suitable plasticizenis applied to .a backing of paper or regenerated cellulose, and covered by a thin layer of a substance, such :as shellac, which acts as an adhesive between the surface to be marked and the pigment transferred thereto by the pressure of the heated block on the back of the foil.

It was found, however, that whilst the use of this known technique was moderately successful in the case of silks or other fabrics having a smooth surface, it was quite incapable of producing a permanent, or even a complete, impression on materials having a hairy texture which are, unfortunately, the ones chiefly requiring a selvedge marking.

The object of the present invention is .to effect a more secure adhesion of the pigment to the cloth than is produced by the shellac or like facing of the normal blocking foil and thereby to enable an adequately permanent marking to be cheaply and quickly obtained by blocking, not only on hairy-textured materials such as worsteds, serges and two-eds, but also on velvets and furnishingfabrics and even on felts.

The improved marking method hereinafter described is elso applicable to the treatment of tapes and other narrow-fabrics made in long lengths, as well as to the marking of canvas or like hose pipes.

According to this invention, an additional adhesive consisting of or incorporating gutta-percha or other suitable thermoplastic material is interposed in the form ofa thin film between the pigmented face of the blocking foil and the material to be marked.

The film aforesaid may be employed as a separate strip,-;but preferably it is incorporated in the blocking :foi-l by rolling or spraying it on to the pigmented face thereof, its effect under the action of heat and pressure being to penetrate into, and/or mat down the hairy texture of, the tabric so as to provide a strongly adhesive base for the transferred pigment.

The invention consists also in an improved bloc-king foil whose pigmented face has a coating possessing the aforesaid characteristics, and an improved machine for marking textile fabrics, such machine comprising essentially a support for the cloth under treatment, a heated die bearing the legend or design tofbe applied, means for efiecting relative movement of the cloth support and di-e'whereby the latter is brought into and out of engagement with the cloth and means for leading the above-mentioned improved blocking foil between said die and the cloth, with its coated face adjacent the latter.

In the accompanying drawings Fig. l is a fragmentary and partly diagramm-atic end elevation of a selvedge-markhig'machine embodying the present invention,

Fig. .2 is a fragmentary section on theline 2-2 of Fig. 1,

.Fig. 3 is a fragmentary plan view of the machine drawn to a reduced scale,

Fig. 4is adetail viewof an automatic foil feed mechanism adapted for use in the apparatus shown in Fig. 1,

Fig. 5 is a side elevation of the machine, partiy broken away, and

Fig. 6 is a sectional plan view, also broken away, taken on the line 3-5 of Fig. 5.

In the construction illustrated, the selvedgemarking machine consists essentially of a blocking head surmounting a suitable stillage II, this latter being inset into one lateral edge of a table l2 over which the cloth is drawn step-bystep during the marking operation. 7

The table I2 is provided at its rear end with a transversely arranged driving roller l3 and pressure roller |4 between which the cloth is drawn, the front end of the table being provided with means for maintaining an adjustable tension on the cloth.

This tensioning device comprises upper and lower horizontal rails L5, 13, extending the full width of the table l2, the upper rail l5 being rotatable in its bearings l1 and having fixed thereon adjacent such bearings a pair of rocking levers l3 whose corresponding ends are connected by further horizontal bars [9, 20.

A length of cloth (indicated at 2|) is led up over the lower rail l6, beneath the movable rail 2!) and upper rail l5, and over the second movable rail i9 before passing across the adjacent edge of the table l2 and along the latter to the driving roller IS.

The tension applied to the cloth may be varied by angularly adjusting th rail-carrying levers I8 (for example, to the position shown in broken lines in Fig. 2), such adjustment being effected by the handle 22 at one end of the rail l5 and frictionally locked by means of the handle 23.

As will be seen from Fig. 3, the blocking head l8 overhangs the adjacent selvedge 2!a of the cloth, which is guided against a longitudinal shoulder 24 on the top of the table l2, the formation of creases in such selvedge adjacent the marking station being resisted by means of suitably shaped, and preferably transparent, pads 25 which overlie the marginal portion of the cloth 2| at opposite sides of the blocking head It).

The blocking mechanism illustrated is of generally known construction. The stillage |l having mounted thereon, at the side remote from the table l2, a tiltable platform 26 whose free end extends beneath the selvedge 2|a and is adapted, on being raised, to press such selvedge against a stationary die 21. p

This die is mounted upon one end of a heater box 28 in the lower part of the blocking head, and the blocking foil 29 is led in ribbon form between the die 27 and the selvedge 2 la so to be engaged by the latter whenever the platform 23 is raised, its direction of movement being transverse to the length of the cloth 2 I. I

As already mentioned, the blocking foil 29 has its pigmented face coated (by rolling or spraying) with gutta-percha or equivalent thermoplastic material and is stored on a reel 30 in the rear part of the head [0. From this reel it is led downwardly beneath a pivoted plate 3| which maintains tension thereon and over a stripping roller 32 beyond the die 21, the used foil thereafter passing upwardly to a feed roller 33 in the front part of the head It andbeing collected upon a second reel 34 in contact with the roller 33.

The foil is arranged with its coated face adjacent the selvedge 2 la, the underside of the box 28 being covered by a removable sheet 35 of asbestos or other insulating material so that the gutta-percha or equivalent coating is effectively shielded except where the foil 29 passes beneath the die 21.

It will be appreciated that, whenever the coated blocking foil 29 is engaged between the heated die 21 and the cloth 2|, it functions to transfer an impression to the latter in the same manner as the ink ribbon of a typewriter, the characters or other impression surfaces on the die 21 fusing the adjacent portions of the gutta-percha or equivalent material into the texture of the fabric so that they firmly bond thereto the super posed areas of pigment transferred from the foil 29.

The coating aforesaid should be sufficiently thin to ensure that the marking produced will not stiffen and stand away from the surface of the fabric to which it is applied.

The upward movement of the platform 26 whereby the selvedge Zla and overlying foil 29, are pressed against the die may be effected by angular movement of a hand lever fixed to a horizontal shaft 38 in the stillage l I, this shaft carrying a cam member 31 which operates between a stationary abutment 38 and a further abutment 39'beneath the platform 26.

The roller l3 which draws the cloth 2| along the table l2 may be rotated by hand or power means, and if whichever method is employed, the blocking mechanism and cloth-feed means are preferably interconnected so that the cloth is stationary at each marking operation, For example each operative stroke of the hand lever aforesaid may be caused to effect, or allow, a subsequent automatic forward movement of the cloth, or the cloth may be moved step-by-step and the blocking mechanism interconnected with the driving roller [3 so that, at each stoppage of the latter, the platform 26 makes an upward stroke.

The foil 29 may be fed forward between successive marking operations by manual rotation of a handwheel on the spindle 40 of the feed roller 33, but here again it is preferred to interconnect the working parts to ensure that foil 29 is moved only when clear of the die 2?.

Suitable mechanism for effecting an automatic foil feed after each marking operation is illustrated in Fig. 4, where the hand lever on the cam shaft 33 is indicated at 4|. An arm 42 fixed to such lever or shaft is linked at 43 to a second arm 44 mounted coaxially with the spindle 40 and carrying a pawl 45 which co-operates with a ratchet wheel 46 on the said spindle with such an arrangement the successive oscillations of the lever 4| involved in raising and lowering the platform 26 cause the foil-feed roller 33 to be rotated step-by-step.

The preceding specific description is given by way of example only, and it will be understood that the construction involved is capable of modification in various ways without'departure from the scope of the invention.

For example, instead of the cloth 2| being raised against the foil 29 and di 27, it may be held stationary and the foil pressed against it by depression of the die. Alternatively, both the cloth and the die may move to engage the foil between them.

If desired, the machine may be provided with two blocking heads I0, one at each side of the table i2, so that both selvedges of the cloth 2| may be marked simultaneously.

When the machine is not required for selvedge marking, it may be adapted for other blocking operations (such as the marking of cloth patterns) merely removing the plate 3| and the insulating sheet 35 so that the whole underside of the heater box 28 may be utilized for supporting the die.

Instead of the cloth being traversed intermittently past the blocking station during selvedge marking, the die may project from the periphery of a heated rotary cylinder over or beneath which the cloth is passed continuously, the cloth support in this case being either a stationary table or a second rotary cylinder having a smooth periphery. In a rotary machine such as that above described, the blocking foil to be engaged between the die and the cloth may be led over or between suitably arranged guide rollers in the same direction as the cloth.

The coated foil aforesaid may be supplied in a variety of different colours, in the same way as the normal blocking foil, and it is thus a simple matter to apply, by the method above described, variously coloured markings to the same piece of material, it being merely necessary to provide the requisite number of heated dies and pigmented ribbons and to transfer from the latter to the cloth in any desired sequence.

Furthermore, as the dies can be quickly changed, the selvedge of a given piece of material may be given one marking for a certain length thereof and thereafter a different marking or markings, a feature which Will obviously be advantageous to Weavers who wish to apply customers own markings to the cloth they supply.

Yet another advantage of the improved method, as compared to the weaving-in of selvedge markings, is that it enables the marking to be deferred until after the cloth has been inspected and passed as satisfactory.

What I claim is:

Apparatus for printing on textile fabrics, comprising a table for supporting the fabric to be printed on, a blocking head disposed above one lateral edge of the table and carrying a heated die, intermittently driven means for moving the fabric in a horizontal plane across the table with one edge of said fabric in vertical alinement with said die, means for maintaining the fabric in tensioned condition, means for moving a printing foil between said fabric and die, the direction of movement of the fabric and foil being at right angles to each other, a pivoted platform disposed below the fabric, and means for moving said platform on its pivot thereby to compress the edge of the fabric and the foil against said die, said platform-moving means operating synchronously with the fabric-moving and foil-moving means.

WILLIAM EDWARD IMAGE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,086,400 Richardson Feb. 10, 1914 1,169,118 Brehmer Jan. 25, 1916 1,553,397 Roberts Sept. 15, 1925 1,810,294 Richardson June 16, 1931 1,879,417 Muzzioli Sept. 27, 1932 1,949,362 Wickwire Feb. 27, 1934 1,995,462 Tandel Mar. 26, 1935 2,015,440 Schur Sept. 24, 1935 2,138,350 McChesney Nov.. 29, 1938 2,353,717 Francis July 18, 1944 2,397,623 Reese Apr. 2, 1946 

